NCYL creates lasting change for children in need by using the law to ensure that low-income children have the resources, support, and opportunities they need for a fair start in life and working to ensure that public agencies created to protect and care for children do so effectively.

As a state support center, NCYL provides services to qualified legal services programs free of charge. NCYL attorneys are available to assist advocates representing poor children and adolescents. Our services include:

acting as a resource for private attorneys, legal services programs, social services organizations, community groups, health care professionals, teachers, and others representing poor children or adolescents on a pro bono basis;

NCYL was founded in 1970 under the name Youth Law Center. It was originally an organization that did impact litigation on behalf of delinquent youth confined in horrible places. Early in its history the organization added the plight of children in foster care to its priorities. The Youth Law Center merged with National Juvenile Law Center in St. Louis in 1978 and became the National Center for Youth Law.